Sunday, April 22, 2012

Earth Day 2012

The simple question is why? or maybe that's the more complex question. Why do we continue to deny the toxicity and damage our lifestyles cause, especially with our addiction to oil and it's products?... all we can do is continue (if we choose) to change our learned habits. Today is Earth Day 2012.

The BP spill and the Fukushima Disaster are the two current "in our face" tragedies. But the history has been on going. The oil spills in Santa Barbara impacted me personally and was the first realization as a young adult of just how devastating neglect and error can be. I'm also old enough to remember the scare, horror and fallout of Chernobyl.

We continue to have denial and obstruction to uncovering the facts about these types of operations and that is what is most concerning.

We are not able to come to terms, be honest and make the necessary changes that will turn around the continued havoc we create in our world.

Most concerning is how these tragedies impact our future environments, and our children.

For 87 days, through the spring and early summer of 2010, oil spewed from BP’s Macondo well some 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Slicks spread across 68,000 square miles of ocean and soiled more than 1,000 miles of coastline. In addition to the estimated 210 million gallons of escaped oil, cleanup crews introduced 2 million gallons of chemicals designed to break the heavy crude into smaller globs. . . .

. . . On Wednesday, BP announced it had reached a settlement with more than 100,000 plaintiffs, including individuals seeking medical damage claims. Scott Dean, a BP spokesman, tells The Huffington Post that the agreement “resolves the substantial majority of legitimate claims of cleanup workers and residents of specified Gulf Coast beachfront and wetlands areas. . .

. . . The settlement covers certain chronic respiratory, eye and skin conditions that began or worsened within a couple days of exposure to the spill. Mental health issues, cancers and birth defects are among the excluded ailments, although people can still file claims for these and other unlisted medical conditions, including ones that may develop in the years ahead. The burden is on plaintiffs to prove cause and effect . . ."

"Spent reactor fuel, containing roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl, still sits in pools vulnerable to earthquakes". . . . and . . . "The urgency of the situation is underscored by the ongoing seismic activity where 13 earthquakes of magnitude 4.0-5.7 have occurred off the northeast coast of Japan between April 14 and 17. This has been the norm since the first quake and tsunami hit the Dai-Ichi site on March 11 of last year. Larger quakes are expected closer to the power plant."

The only reason we continue to use and promote the use of oil and nuclear fuel is ? Money. Big Money is behind it. And ( a big AND), we (we the people) need to make a shift.

So we continue down the path that was in place even back in the 70's knowing that "fuel/oil is scarce and not ever plentiful" (quotes are added to qualify what I've heard for over 40 years, not to attribute to any one person).